Brilliance of X-rays

Synchrotron light is produced at the Synchrotron Radiation Source (link opens in a new window) (SRS which closed in 2008) when an electron beam travelling close to the speed of light is accelerated in a magnetic field. The light covers a broad area of the electromagnetic spectrum, from infrared through to hard X-rays.

Synchrotron X-rays are much more intense than those from a conventional laboratory source, enabling researchers to carry out experiments in a very short time.

The light from the SRS has other important properties making it different to ordinary light; it comes in regular pulses, allowing data to be collected like a movie on samples which vary with time. The light is also very highly polarised, linearly in the centre of the beam and circularly above and below centre.

Discover more:

• Crystallising proteins
  Techniques based on synchrotron light are used to study a wide range of biological specimens. Many proteins, enzymes and viruses can be crystallised; diffraction of X-rays by the regular crysta...
• Non-crystalline materials
  Many biological materials are non-crystalline and different techniques are used to study them. Research on the SRS is helping scientists understand how muscle works at the atomic level and how...
• Collecting the data
  The interaction of the synchrotron light beam with an experimental sample must be recorded in some way so it can be fully analysed, giving information about the innermost structure of the sampl...
• Studying surfaces
  Many important processes and reactions occur at the surfaces of materials and researchers use the SRS to study many different types of surface phenomena. Catalytic converters work because the s...
• How is synchrotron light produced?
  When a charged particle travelling close to the speed of light is accelerated, it emits the broad spectrum of photons known as sy...
• Sources of synchrotron light
  There are several different types of synchrotron light source at the SRS. The sixteen dipole magnets keeping the electron beam on its circular path all produce a broad spectrum of wavelengths,...
• Catalysts and chemistry
  Researchers use the SRS to look at important chemical reactions at the atomic level. Many industrial chemical processes rely heavily on catalysts. By understanding how these catalysts work, sci...
• On the beamlines
  Synchrotron light is carried from its source in the storage ring to the experimental areas through high vacuum beam lines. Most of the X-ray beamlines contain focusing optics to concentrate the...
• Looking at materials
  Our modern lifestyles depend very much on the huge variety of materials at our disposal. To understand the behaviour of these materials we need to examine them at the atomic level, using advan...